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Monday, June 23, 2008

Some Gun Owners Seek Open Carry In Texas.

Most states allow the open carrying of firearms. Texas does not. There is a movement to allow for this questionable practice. I don’t support any government restrictions on law –abiding gun owners in connection to the possession or carrying of firearms.

Open carry is fine for hunters, cowboy sports shooters and such. As for open carry in malls, or on public streets I believe it’s dangerous and may invite a breach of the peace. Why give criminals the advantage of knowing you’re armed? In the case of women and strength challenged men you may be inviting a strong armed robbery of your gun.

Cops are trained and paid to travel around looking for trouble. Barring an insurrection or law enforcement breakdown citizens should avoid conflict whenever possible. Open carry will bring conflict.

Carrying an exposed gun will draw comments and provocation from troublemakers, drunks and mentally disturbed people. This practice should be avoided. If Texas legalizes open carry and they should, gun owners would do best to continue carrying concealed.

Open carry should not be a serious priority when there are more pressing gun-rights battles to fight.

2 comments:

I live in Arizona where open carry is allowed. As nearly as I can tell it is a non-problem here. Those of us with CCW permits don't normally carry in the open because it does invite unwanted attention from the police. Also, why spoil the surprise for some evil doer who thinks the ordinary looking guy will give up quietly?

In the rural areas of Arizona it's not uncommon to see farmers or ranchers with a side arm strapped on. No one thinks anything of this.

The state of Oregon among others requires a CHL for concealed carry but has no license requirement for open carry. (A few cities independently prohibit open carry by non-CHL holders, but most of the state does not.) This gives us a broader liberty of action before we have to ask permission from the state. In the event of a new gun owner acquiring one to defend against a stalker or other specific threat, it also gives them a legal bypass to the processing time for the CHL.

I don't open carry in urban areas myself, but the experiences of those who do don't bear out your concern over inviting conflict and provocation. See opencarry.org